ANY CHANGES TO the route of the proposed MetroLink project – including changing the terminus from Charlemont to the city centre – would cost “several hundred million” and result in a further delay to the project.
One expert told The Journal that moving the terminus would mean “a complete redesign of the system” and he believes could result in the delivery of the project being delayed until the 2040s.
It comes after Fianna Fáil TD Jim O’Callaghan yesterday called for the terminus of the proposed underground rail system to be changed from Charlemont to St Stephen’s Green or Tara Street.
The proposed MetroLink will have 16 new stations running from Swords to Charlemont and carry 53 million passengers annually. Construction is set to begin next year, with an opening year of 2035.
Addressing the second day of an oral hearing into the project, O’Callaghan said Charlemont will not be capable of supporting the estimated 10 million people that will visit the station each year, saying it will have a “detrimental impact” on the surrounding residential area.
Independent Senator Michael McDowell also called for the terminus to be changed, with both politicians in agreement that Charlemont was chosen for the terminus in order to facilitate a potential upgrade to the Luas Green line in the future.
MetroLink project director Aidan Foley said the chosen terminus would still allow connections to the southeast and southeast, and would also facilitate an upgrade of the Luas Green line. He said he had visited the proposed location “several times” and thought it was an appropriate location for the terminus.
If the terminus were to be changed, it would be a costly process and could see the project delayed even further.
During his submission to the hearing, Labour TD Duncan Smith asked Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) what impact a change to the proposed route of the scheme would have on the planning process and questioned how much of a delay it would cause.
MetroLink project director Aidan Foley told him it would have “a significant impact” and involve elements of “significant redesign”.
It would also have a negative impact on the cost scheme, he said, adding: “The cost for every year of delay is several hundred million.”
It was initially thought that Foley had quoted a figure of €700 million. However, a spokesperson for TII later clarified to The Journal that Foley actually said “several hundred million”.
There have been a number of figures quoted in relation to the estimated cost of any delays to the project.
Speaking at the Oireachtas Transport Committee on 14 February, TII chief executive Peter Walsh said that it would cost around €250 million for every year that the MetroLink is delayed.
“During the pre-application consultation with An Bord Pleanála, we made it clear that delays to the project, given the scale of it, could be measured in time alone at about €250 million a year,” he said.
Last July, Public Accounts Committee chair Brian Stanley said it had been estimated that each year of delay “would add additional costs of between €100 million and €300 million.”
Duncan Smith told The Journal that he believes any added cost and redesign of MetroLink “could throw the entire project into doubt”.
“The engineering and interconnectivity reasons for the current route are well explained by TII and I believe equally a robust plan for a city that desperately needs this Metrolink. We cannot countenance any calls for such changes or removals of Terminus. It would be grossly negligent to the needs of the city,” he said.
Brian Caulfield, a professor in transportation and Head of Department at Trinity College Dublin, told The Journal that to move the terminus would mean “a complete redesign of the system” which would cost “millions”.
“It wouldn’t be a whole route redesign, but I think once you open up one part of it for redesign, you probably open up the whole thing,” he said.
Caulfield said to look at a redesign, along with conducting further transport modelling and cost benefit analysis, “you’re adding at least another four years to the project at a conservative estimate before we could even get to start dates”.
“When you start to do that, we’re talking about the 2040s by the time this would be operational.”
A spokesperson for the MetroLink project told The Journal that the Charlemont station is “an integral part” of the proposed scheme.
The spokesperson said the station was chosen as the terminus because it provides a short interchange distance to the Luas Green Line and is within a five-minute walk of the proposed Bus Connects A Spine and E Spine routes.
“The capability and flexibility to further extend the metro in the future, whether to connect onto the Luas Green Line or to provide a metro to the southwest of the city, is much better enabled and facilitated by the planned arrangements at Charlemont, which future-proofs the opportunity for such extension,” the spokesperson said.
“Any change to the design of the scheme would lead to significant delays in the delivery of the MetroLink scheme and ultimately result in significant additional costs to the taxpayer.”
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